Don’t you miss instruction manuals? Or even just paper? I know I do. And these photos make me miss them even more.
Over on 2ch, Japan’s biggest online forum, a series of Famicom-era instruction manuals were recently posted.
[via 2ch]
Like the Famicom instruction manual, for example. This dates from 1983.
[via 2ch]
A look inside.
[via 2ch]
This is a manga-style instruction manual Nintendo included, called “It’s a Family Computer!!”
[via 2ch]
See? Wonderful stuff.
[via 2ch]
Xevious, a classic from Namco.
[via 2ch]
And inside.
[via 2ch]
Taito’s run-and-gun shooter Front Line. Love the colours.
[via 2ch]
The drawings are cute, too.
[via 2ch]
This is The Portopia Serial Murder Case from Enix. Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii designed this game.
[via 2ch]
Very 1980s-style art, no? Yes.
[via 2ch]
The highly influential Thexder.
[via 2ch]
The manual points everything out. Literally.
[via 2ch]
The Famicom Disk System.
[via 2ch]
The Disk Writer.
[via 2ch]
A flier regarding the network connection. People forget all the cutting edge things Nintendo has done. Shame on those people.
[via 2ch]
The Disk System’s illustrated manga-style instruction manual.
[via 2ch]
So great.
[via 2ch]
The Dead Zone manual.
[via 2ch]
Here’s the story explanation. Love this 80s art style.
[via 2ch]
This is known as Crackout in the West.
[via 2ch]
Fun little instruction manual.
[via 2ch]
D’aw.
[via 2ch]
D’aw.
[via 2ch]
Dragonball, of course. (Of course!)
[via 2ch]
How to play.
[via 2ch]
SonSon, which Yoshiki Okamoto designed.
[via 2ch]
This is terrific.
[via 2ch]
In case you can read music. I cannot.
[via 2ch]
Here’s Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei.
[via 2ch]
Cool anime-style illustrations.
[via 2ch]
Strategy game Sangokushi: Chuugen no Hasha.
[via 2ch]
Inside.
[via 2ch]
The instruction manual for this Little Lord Fauntleroy game looked like a newspaper.
[via 2ch]
This is the other side.
[via 2ch]
Sweet Home.
[via 2ch]
The graphics might not look exactly like the drawings, but who cares?
There are even more manuals in the 2ch thread. Have a look at when times were simpler and required lots of tree cutting.
Comments
8 responses to “Old Nintendo Instruction Manuals Are Truly Wonderful”
Yes bring back manuals. I miss them.
Blizzard did the best manuals, 40 pages of getting started and keyboard commands then another 100 of story and unit details and spell/weapon abilities with sweet artwork
Buy a flight sim, get an encyclopedia!
I loved the old NES and SNES manuals. Full of colour and pretty easy to find what button did what…which was a good thing considering the only way to figure out how to play a game back then, was to read the manual. Mario manuals were the best. Opening that Super Mario World manual for the first time was nearly as exciting as holding the SNES controller for the first time.
I jumped in at the N64 stage and they had great manuals. I always used to go over them, had heaps of lore and characters as well as all sorts of tips along with the controls.
By the time the Wii came around they were pretty rubbish and every game had a tutorial anyway. Now with the WiiU they are digital which is really handy if I’m ever trying to find something. Everything is hyperlinked.
Those manuals look exactly like my Aristo’s car manual. It’s a few years younger but it’s almost exactly the same, lots of Japanese I can’t understand and funny, retro Japanese images.
OMG that Famicon manual for the floppy system. I have that somewhere in storage. I must go dig it up.
Does it have a line in the manual somewhere that says to “Insert Disk into F***ing Box”?